Jackson, Mississippi water crisis: FEMA Director says it’s too early to tell when Jackson, Mississippi residents will have access to clean drinking water

still 6 days after major Water purification plant breakdownit is still too early to say when all Jackson residents will have access to safe drinking water, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Sunday.

FEMA Director Deanna Criswell told CNN’s Dana Bash, “The focus right now is on ensuring the availability of bottled water.

“We are currently taking temporary steps to increase water pressure so that people can at least flush the toilet and use the faucet.”

Jackson, home to about 150,000 residents, was already in danger Boiling advisories after July 30 That’s because the OB Curtis Water Treatment Plant in nearby Ridgeland had high “manganese levels combined with the use of lime,” the city of Jackson said.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said last week that the plant’s main pump was severely damaged around late July, forcing the facility to run on a smaller backup pump. The governor did not elaborate on the damage.
Then, heavy rains and flooding in late August created a chemical imbalance at the OB Curtiss facility, the primary water treatment facility supplying Jackson.of The water treatment plant began to malfunction on Monday.said Reeves.

FEMA’s director general visited the site on Friday and said he wasn’t sure when the water supply system would be fully operational.

Dean Criswell (middle), FEMA Administrator, led by Jim Craig (left), Mississippi Department of Health. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, right. Governor Tate Reeves and rear as he walks past washbasins at Ridgeland's OB Curtis Water Treatment Plant on Friday.

“There’s been a lot of infrastructure damage over the years,” Criswell said in CNN’s State of the Union address on Sunday.

But “I think we had a really good conversation with the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers about what we need on Friday and the evaluations they’re doing,” Criswell said. .”

How You Can Help Residents of Jackson, Mississippi

City officials said the plant saw a “significant increase” in pressure late Friday night through Saturday, boosting power output to 86 pounds per square inch (PSI), close to the target of 87 PSI.

But even if Jackson’s boiling water advisory is lifted, water treatment infrastructure will still be in a vulnerable state, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

“As I have always warned, even if the pressure is restored, even if we do not receive boiling water notifications, the question is not if these systems will fail, but when,” Lumumba said. said.

“There are a lot of failure points. This is talking about a set of challenges that have accumulated over 30 years.”

'We are living in a nightmare': Jackson University students leave campus due to city's water crisis

The mayor told ABC that there is a long way to go to make water treatment facilities “safe, drinkable, reliable, sustainable and equitable.”

Lumumba said, “I have brought this situation up among many individuals who have demonstrated leadership and influence over solutions. , I think there is a clear record that I lifted it.”

Source: www.cnn.com

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